A Brief History of Me

            As a child, I always enjoyed history class. My teacher was engaging and always seemed to bring the stories to life. I believe this is what originally sparked my interesting in learning about different cultures. I was always fascinated when missionaries would come speak at my church and talk about the country they were serving in, but I never thought I could be the person ministering to those people.  I always believed that this was a job meant for those picked by God, and I would not be one of them. However, one summer at a National church conference, I sat and listened to a former pastor speak about different cultures , and about how many people had never heard about God and they did not have a Bible in their language. I was shocked by the numbers, I felt God speaking to my heart, telling me He wanted me to be one of those people who go and tell those who have never heard about Him.

                After that, I signed up for a missions trip for the next summer after I had graduated high school. Then, when I attended college that next fall in Nashville, I decided to minor in Missions. I suddenly felt like I was doing something right. I excelled at my classes, and best of all, I enjoyed them. I took courses like Cultural Anthropology and The Study of World Religions. Because of my minor in missions, I was required to participate in an overseas apprenticeship. I chose to go to France. I stayed with a missionary there, and helped her at the French bookstore she ran in Nantes. This trip lasted for two months, and gave me a real taste of life abroad. I loved it. I had to learn to survive on my own for the first time. This trip inspired me to take as many as possible during my college education.

                A couple years later though, I realized I was in quite a bit of debt, and I still had several college general classes that I had yet to take. So, I moved home to take those classes at a community college near my parents. I met my husband then, and we married a year and a half later. It was then that my life came to a standstill. I was happily married, yet I was not sure how my dream of living overseas and ministering was going to come true. After about a year of marriage, we went to Nashville so I could finish up my degree. Afterwards, we moved back to Arkansas so my husband could finish his.

                During this time, I worked a lot. Occasionally, my thoughts would wander to my previous trips overseas, and I wondered if I would ever get to travel again. I was never quite happy with my job placements. I was working in retail and at daycare centers. Nothing seemed to fit, and I kept switching jobs. So, my husband and I had discussed what I wanted to do with my life. He wanted me to be happy, and said he would be happy to go anywhere with me after he finished his degree. However, I was not sure how we could go overseas. We had student loans, and I did not feel that I was trained to work internationally. Then, one day I remembered my sister had taken the TESL course at TFLI. The course had been required when she and her husband moved to Japan. It sounded like something that would work perfectly for me. I would be able to work with people from foreign countries here or overseas. I still had a couple years to wait for my husband to finish school but at least I had a goal to work towards. I signed up at the local Literacy League to tutor people in English. They did not have a high demand for English teachers, so my first student was a man learning to read. However, my second student was a Hispanic woman wanting to learn English.

                When my husband finished school, he started looking for jobs in Nashville.  It took about a year, but we finally made our way back to this city. We decided I would take the TESL course this summer. Now, I am writing this essay, and I cannot believe that my time has almost come. I am very excited to take this course, and I know this is going to open doors for me.  I hope that during the next few years my husband and I will be able to travel overseas, and possibly move to a foreign country. This course will enable me to finally live out my dream of ministering and helping people, and for that I am eternally grateful.


*This is the entrance essay I wrote for the TESL class I will be taking this summer.